


Summer Days

by comfortwriter28



Series: The Call AU [4]
Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23487145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comfortwriter28/pseuds/comfortwriter28
Summary: Summer has always been a sort of stressful time for Justin but this summer will be different since he doesn't have his usual problems so he's free to just enjoy it this year!Part of the Call AU, a bridge between the the last part and the next one, mostly fluff.
Relationships: Hannah Baker/Clay Jensen, Jessica Davis/Justin Foley, Justin Foley & Clay Jensen, Justin Foley & The Jensens, Zach Dempsey & Justin Foley
Series: The Call AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1486958
Comments: 20
Kudos: 57





	1. Camping Trip

Tony offered to take him camping as long as Clay agreed and in the end Clay gives in surprisingly easily despite swearing he’d never go camping again after Tony ‘tried to kill him’. Tony doesn't even seem shocked when he tells him about Clay’s reversal in decision. They pool sixty dollars to reserve a campsite and set off early on a Friday morning. He takes shotgun cause Tony appreciates his superior navigating skills and that thankfully gives him control of the music so he can prevent a Clay monopoly on it. Unfortunately that leaves Clay in control of snacks and he's not only cheap with buying them but also stingy in giving them out.

They get there before noon and Tony brings him to check in with a man whose hat is enormous. He then makes him help set up the tent, pointing out in his usual annoying sensible way, that if they don't do it now they'll do it in the dark. It isn't hard anyway, Tony has the directions memorized and guides him through it in under ten minutes. 

He wouldn't have minded except Clay goes to look at the lake and that's what he really wants to do. Tony reminds him it'll still be there when it's done but that isn't the point, he just wants to see it. It'll be like a preview of seeing the ocean!

Once finished Tony walks over with him, annoying slow in the same unhurried speed as if this were more mundane. He tells him to relax and enjoy the forest and that the lake is only one part of it. It may be true but still...he can see trees at home...the Jensens' house has a huge one outside. But a lake...the park has a pond but it's smaller than Bryce's pool and this is a lake. Tony doesn’t seem to get this.

When they finally reach the top of the hill his breath gets caught in his mouth. Below them the trees thin out on the hill side and it gives a view of a beautiful, sparkling pool of water, glowing in the afternoon sun. Behind it another hill rises, deep green against the blue of the sky above it and the blue and gold of the water below. 

A thin, sandy beach and dock are on this side and a lone figure sits at the end of the dock, feet in the water, socks and sneakers behind him. It's Clay, and he takes a quick picture to send to Hannah later when he has time to think up a teasing caption.

Stepping onto the dock is an interesting experience. It moves under him! He grabs Tony on reflex who steadies him and reminds him the dock is floating and is going to move. 

They join Clay after that who teases him for his amusement of the lake but Tony pushes him off the dock. Clay comes up sputtering and spitting water and glares at them. He decides not to point out he had nothing to do with it. Of course Clay gives an over the top performance complaining about being wet and complaining his phone could have been ruined and a bunch of stuff that Tony just rolls his eyes and replies in a dry voice that he’s certainly not made of sugar and doesn't have to worry about melting.

They walk back, Clay barefoot and dripping wet, even though Justin sort of wants to go swimming right then. Tony of course has to be a party pooper and point out that they should change first. So they return to the little campsite, change and grab towels before walking back. The water is amazing, cool and refreshing against the heat of the day, but it also tastes funny. Clay says there's a lot of dissolved iron in it which is why it tastes like blood. Tony mumbles in Spanish about Clay being familiar with the taste because he’s a vampire. Justin laughs and Clay assumes they’re making fun of him which starts a water fight. At least he’s right this time.

Tony eventually bribes him out of the water by saying they need to make dinner and they can light a fire after. Clay complains about collecting firewood but not too much and about an hour later he and Tony are at a portable two burner camp stove that he thinks is cool as hell while Clay wanders off into the woods to collect branches and stuff for a fire. It’s still bright out but Tony assures him the golden rules of camping are that cotton kills and there’s never enough wood for a fire, apparently collecting early is essential.

Dinner is made and eaten and then Tony and Clay carefully arrange wood in a ring of rocks, Tony explaining as they go along. It’s interesting and he hopes tomorrow he gets a chance to help build it, after Tony assures him they’re making one tomorrow.

They stay up pretty late. The fire is beautiful but that may be because he’s never actually seen fire besides the one time an apartment in the neighborhood burned up but that was too deadly to be pretty. This is different, the red and orange flames jump up from the wood and he could stare into it forever without ever really knowing why it looks so amazing but it does all the same. 

Arguably the only thing more impressive is that it sends sparks high into the air that get lost among the stars and he can’t help but relate to them and be jealous of them at the same time. The little sparks get to fly up and up and up and for a few seconds be with heavens above, which makes him envious of them, but then they go out and fall to earth and he can’t help but relate to them on that level he’s felt like a dying ember before.

Tony does most of the talking that night. He tells stories, strange ones, about things Justin’s never even thought of. He figures out at some point they’re folk tales and stories from Native Americans and they’re interesting but the best part is Tony’s calm voice narrating them. Clay nods off sitting on a tree stump but he’s too busy listening. He likes them, the world built on the back of a turtle for a lady who fell out of the sky by animals who go diving for dirt so she’ll have somewhere to stand, a story that sounds suspiciously like Cinderella but with a cave-in that kills people. 

His favorite is about the Old Man and the Old Woman who have different ideas about how humans should live. Old Woman clearly runs the show and it sounds a lot like Matt and Lainie. He says one thing, she says another and he goes with that. He does think Matt is much smarter than Old Man though, he would know rocks always sink. It makes him kind of sad though, wondering what it would be like if people never died. Before all of this, he always thought of death as a good thing in a way, a way out, and an end of the misery. He never wanted to rush it but at the same time he always thought it might be sort of a relief when it did come.

Now, there seems like so much more to live for and experience and he can't help but feel annoyed that Old Man gets taken to the cleaners so easily. If he hadn’t, maybe there would be more time to do and see everything, meet everyone and spend time with them...he tries to give up that line of thought pretty quickly because it’s too sad and this is a happy time. 

They stay up late into the night, up until the fire is mostly out, just glowing a little on the bottom of the pit. Tony at that point dumps water on it and mixes the wet ashes around with a stick while he gets Clay up. They head into the tent and close it up. He sees now why Clay told him to unroll his sleeping bag when there was light because he can’t see anything now.

The next morning Tony makes scrambled eggs for breakfast and then they go hiking. He’d rather go back to the lake but hiking is part of the experience and that is what he’s here for. Tony pointing to the top of the hill behind the lake shakes his confidence a little and he can’t help worrying they’ll get lost. Clay telling him there are trail markers makes him feel a little better but that only lasts until he sees it’s only a little paint strip on a tree.

It’s hot, sweaty work and honestly not entirely pleasant since Clay is grouchy, he can’t tell if it’s because his brother hasn’t had coffee, is up before noon, it’s hot, or some combo of all three. It isn’t unpleasant though, Tony points out a lot of things from different types of trees and flowers to birds and even some deer that that they happen to pass and they reach the top of the hill before ten and with Clay in a marginally better mood. It’s sort of awe inspiring looking down on the lake from up here. It looks so small and less like water than glass. 

He gets a tap on his shoulder, “You’re looking the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?” He doesn't see how something could be cooler than this but he turns around anyway. The other side is dominated by mountains, rising up into the sky like jagged towers. They dominate the landscape, filling it up.

“You look smarter when your mouth is closed.” He assumes Tony gives Clay a dirty look cause right after follows, “Well he does.”

The hike down is easier and he’s happy the rest of the day is spent in the lake cause it’s too hot to do much else. Later that night after they’ve had dinner and are sitting around the fire again he finally asks a question that’s been on his mind for a while. “Hey Clay, how come you didn't want to come camping? This is great!”

Clay takes a deep breath and a glance at Tony confirms he’s in for a highly dramatized story of the real events. “Tony tried to kill me the last time we went.”

He goes to interrupt but Clay is only just starting. “He forced me on another hike and put us directly between a mother bear and her cubs. Do you know what that’s like?” 

Justin shakes his head but he’s picturing Lainie in a bear costume for some reason and it’s sort of funny. 

“Bears are three or four hundred pound killing machines with teeth and claws who are super protective of their cubs and this one growled at us! And Tony led us right into it! And his solution was ‘walk back slowly and don’t look too afraid’ as if that was going to help!” 

“But you weren’t mauled by a bear sooo, didn’t it?”

Tony is trying not to laugh as Justin gives him a questioning look because he must be missing something. He would have heard if Clay had a gory bear mauling incident.

Tony clarifies “We did come between a mother and her cubs, I did tell him to walk back slowly and not to be afraid and we did make it out unscathed. Clay is just dramatic.”

The pair dissolves into bickering about who’s right and he leans back to watch the embers fly up. This has been fun, and he’ll be sad when they leave tomorrow even though getting back to air conditioning and civilization, and Jess, will be great. He hopes they get a chance to do it again, maybe bring some of the fishing gear Tony mentioned and stay an extra day if they can manage that. Apparently there’s a place to rent canoes and paddle boats too. Or they could just swim again, he’d be fine with that, with anything really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my plan for this fic as mentioned already are a few lighthearted chapters to fill in the gap that would be summer otherwise. Each chapter is likely to have a different set of characters, with Justin being in all of them and Clay likely in most of them.
> 
> Next chapter should be a week from today or Friday if I'm less lazy lol.
> 
> Enjoy reading and let me know what you think in the comments! For those of you missing angst, this is the calm before the storm!


	2. Living the Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Jensen family trip has Justin over the moon with excitement, Clay personally wishes he would dial it back a little.

Justin’s practically vibrating with energy somewhere to the left of him and if it were less effort, Clay would throw a pillow. It’s too early in the morning for all of this energy but besides pulling the blanket up over his head, he doesn’t do anything. If Justin wants to pack seven times, whatever, too bad he can’t be courteous about it and do so at normal human hours.

“Clay you need to get up and pack, Matt said we were leaving at eleven.”

If only he could have just left him in relative peace. He grunts back. 

“Claaaayyy.”

Sitting up and letting the covers fall off him; he pierces Justin with a dark look. “Dad’s eleven means noon trust me we aren’t leaving on time.”

Justin’s eyes get wide as if he’s said something horrible. 

He flops back into bed. “I have plenty of time to pack, now be quiet, I want to sleep.”

\-------

He’s right, they’re on the road at noon, and at the hotel by six. Traffic was awful but somehow Justin managed to sit still long enough to not be the most annoying person in the world. He and Mom roll their eyes at each other in the rearview mirror when Dad and Justin start singing out loud to songs on the radio. He’ll take it as a trade off even if it isn’t ideal.

Dinner is quick and they follow it with check in and unpacking. Justin almost seems to be vibrating around the edges with energy and Clay finally has to take him out to see the ocean just so they can get a little peace. Mom and Dad make it clear they aren’t going in but apparently seeing it is enough for Justin at the moment.

They cross the street from the hotel and climb the boardwalk stairs to the top of the dunes. Justin doesn’t even speak, he was expecting some kind of excited rambling and instead he gets an almost reverent silence.

When they reach the top Justin just looks at it. The sun is still up, getting low but not yet setting and over the water now. It’s pretty but Justin is looking at it like he’s never seen anything so amazing. Clay tries to cut him some slack and remember how amazing his first time being here was but he had been five not fifteen so it was different. Still he indulges Justin, taking a seat on one of the benches, committing to being there for the long haul. He texts Dad to let them know where they’ll be and texts Hannah hoping for her help putting off the boredom while Justin literally watches the horizon. He enjoys the sea breeze, the smell of the salt water, even the somewhat distant sound of the waves pounding the coast, he’s not mesmerized by it.

Justin is. Thankfully he doesn’t have to remind him not to watch the sun because even the younger boy has enough sense not to but at no point does his brother take his eyes off the horizon except to look at the sand and water closer to them, still dotted with umbrellas and people. When he makes fun of him to Hannah, she tells him to be nice. 

Instead he discreetly takes a photo and sends it to Jess, telling her she’s been unseated by the sun and some water. Jess gets back to him with a very dry comment about how deep her boyfriend is. At least he assumes it’s sarcastic judging from the eye roll emoji she sends right after.

They stay out there till past sunset without saying much. He doesn’t mind, there isn’t really anything that needs to be said, actually it’s kind of amusing watching Justin content to be so still for so long. Maybe he should find a ‘sounds of the ocean’ live stream for the next time he needs peace and quiet, one has to be out there somewhere.

They head back after it’s dark. Mom and Dad are in bed but reading when they enter and they start making plans for the next day, Justin of course wants to be up as early as possible. The moron nearly succeeds in getting them all up for sunrise but he’s not getting out of bed before six, even suggesting it is wrong. Mom comes to a compromise and offers to get up early with him and that settles it. He and Dad can follow later, hopefully several hours later.

Surprisingly the next morning goes well enough, he hears Mom and Justin leave but is able to go right back to sleep and he and Dad head down later to meet them in the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast where Justin talks at rapid fire speed about the early morning, apparently he and Mom went for a long walk on the boardwalk after the sun came up and Justin comments about how many people are already there and how they could have been some of those people. He doesn’t grace that with an answer. After eating they head back to the room to change and get ready before they make it onto the sand.

Justin tortures him for almost forty minutes because Dad won’t let him in the water until he’s had an hour to digest. That leads to Justin pestering him non stop until Dad finally lets them go swimming, where Justin stays with only several very short breaks until lunch. He really is a fish, he tells Mom as much while Justin and Dad are splashing each other like a couple kids. 

There are several exchanges that are all basically the same and go like this, Justin comes out of the water and up to him looking at him with big, stupid, puppy eyes and says, “Please come back in.”

He rolls his eyes and replies, “I’m tired and need a break.”

And then Justin sets his lip into a slight pout and wanders back to the water like a kicked puppy. 

Once he’s back Mom looks over to him and says, “He’s not trying to annoy you, remember you’ve had sixteen years to get used to the ocean but this is a first for him. Why don’t you indulge him and go play for a bit.”

He then, like a sucker, falls for it and goes back in.

The day passes pretty much like this, they eat lunch on the beach, and then Justin takes a nap in the sun after so they don’t have another repeat of the morning. Personally he could do with less time at the beach and more time in the city but whatever, that is the point of the vacation. He would have liked to take a walk to the boardwalk and maybe get on some of the rides but all well. He does want to go to bed much earlier than Justin wants to even leave the water.

When they finally are back in the room, after everyone’s showered and are now relaxing in bed before going to sleep, he reflects that this was a pretty good day. Justin was probably happier than he’s ever seen him for something not involving Jess. He glances over at the couch in the room where Justin’s sleeping already. It’s funny how much like a kid he looks now that all the energy is finally gone. He’s out cold, finally not moving or talking or anything. It’s kind of nice after today.

The next morning he wakes up and knows he’s uncomfortable but isn’t sure why he tries to roll over and go back to bed but can’t because it causes a sharp, burning pain throughout his arms and legs. He sits up and flips the covers off revealing angry red skin, from his knees down to tops of his feet and the lower bicep down. He glares over at Justin, still blissfully asleep before the pain causes him to run to the bathroom and turn the shower on cold to try soothing the burns.

He stays under the water until morning alarms start going off and he has to get out, giving Justin a dark look when the other boy wakes up.

“You did this to me.”

“You look like a lobster.” Innocent and mostly still asleep and all the more infuriating because of that.

“I’m going to kill you.”

Justin pulls the covers up to his face protectively and replies, “Maybe a crab.”

He lets out a yell but before he can attack Mom speaks up.

“Don’t be a baby, we have aloe at home. And how is you getting sunburned Justin’s fault?”

“I would have been safe under the umbrella but he kept making me go back in!”

Three sets of eyes look at him before he gets three different responses.

“But you even wore a shirt?”

“You could have applied more sunscreen while you weren’t in the water.”

“How did Justin make you come in?”

He throws his hands up, they’re all against him.

He grumbles a bit longer but eventually they head down to eat before going back to the beach, and this time no amount of sad faces can convince him to go in the water. It’s boring on the sand but they only stay for a few hours before cleaning up and going home

.

They do thankfully have aloe at home to soothe the burning but for the three days, he remains in the dark safety of the house with liberal amounts of green goop smeared across him.

On that third day, Mom yells up to him that he has mail and when he comes down, she passes him a postcard wordlessly as she shuffles through the rest of the contents. It’s a cheap one displaying the beach, he flips it over and scrawled on the back in Justin’s familiar, big letters is a simple message,

_I didn’t think I see it for the first time with you, wouldn’t change the memory for the world_

Followed by a heart and a ‘J’.

It’s stupid and sweet and he leaves it out on his desk for Justin to see and then puts it up on the whiteboard in front of the desk. He had doubted when they had the conversation that Justin would remember it, now he isn’t surprised the other boy did. It’s just a reminder of how different things are between them, how far they’ve come and how much has changed. He wouldn’t change it either, actually he wishes he had known back then how much more enjoyable life would be with a best friend and a brother. He does now though, and that’s enough, it has to be cause he can’t change it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm not going to lie, this chapter kicked my but which is part of the reason it's late, the other is Easter, which I hope you all enjoyed. Here Justin gets to live out a dream of his and Clay gets to be...Clay.
> 
> I'm hoping the next chapter will be out Saturday but I can't make any promises since i haven't even started on it yet. Right now the plan is to have the brothers and the girls in it but it's probably going to be a bit of a headache to write so I'm hoping it doesn't take me too long.
> 
> Happy reading and I hope you all enjoy. Also a big thanks to de_la_cruz87 for a ton of help on this one, you should check her stories out too, they're amazing!


	3. All's Fair in Love and Laser Tag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clay thinks he's a master strategist, Jess an Amazon, Hannah might actually be special forces and he's just along for the ride and very excited!

Justin can’t help that he’s excited as he and Jess don the special vests, they’re pretty ugly, something he only knows because she commented on how bad they look and fit. In her defense they are hard to get on and clunky but wearing them lets them play and he can’t be the only one psyched for this! Laser tag, him and Jess versus Clay and Hannah, they’ve been planning this for weeks. Well mostly Clay has, planning every tiny detail from the times they pick up the girls to the nearest places to grab lunch and what was available at them, wanting everything to be ‘perfect’. Justin was fine just knowing the prices and told Clay everything else would work itself out but of course he was ignored.

Now that they’re here and about to start, he can hardly contain his excitement, he’s got the laser gun in hand, the vest is full of all sorts of sensors to register being hit, and after two, the gun connected to it deactivates to let the person know they’re out for the round. They’re doing a sort of mini-golf competition, four rounds, each in different rooms that they’ll progress through to the end. There were a few different options but this was the only one that did a group as small as theirs and Clay being socially awkward and hating interactions with strangers, had insisted on this one. 

He didn’t mind, it was more expensive but not by much and between getting paid to do basic chores that he was just expected to do before, and the job Clay helped him pick up at the Crestmont, he was able to pay for himself and Jess without needing to borrow money. The trade off was her buying lunch, ‘It’s the twenty-first century Justin, the man doesn’t need to pay for everything in a relationship’. 

She nudges him and nods to the wall where lights begin flashing, red, yellow, green. The door in front of them opens and spills into a small room with large foam structures set up, their outlines visible in the darkness but only because he caught a glimpse of them earlier. There’s a thrill to it, he has no idea where Clay and Hannah are and hopefully they’re just as clueless as he and Jess move towards the center.

Big mistake apparently because they’re both lit up by lasers in seconds and pull back behind a wall. He can hear Clay from somewhere bragging to Hannah about how he was right and they moved to the center right away and Hannah dryly replying, “Congrats Helmet, you predicted basic human behavior.”

He takes a shot over the wall at them without even looking figuring he won’t hit anything but it’s not like they have a limited number of shots, and he’s rewarded with a squawk from Clay and a yell of, “How?”

He grins at Jess, her teeth, pure white, stand out even in the darkness of the room, mirroring him.

“Cause I’m just that good!”

“Bullshit, you got lucky!”

Jess is next to him giggling madly as he calls back, “Prove it!”

He leans around the side to take another shot but finds his trigger doesn’t work.

Clay lets out a whoop and Jess sighs, “Really?”

He shrugs.

She shakes her head and he heads to the sidelines like the rules say. It doesn’t end up taking long for Jess to get hit again and the round ends.

They move to the next room, splitting into teams and exiting through different doors and following a hallway that wraps around and lets them into the next arena. 

“Want to walk to the center?” He whispers as a joke. Jess gives him a soft push. They move cautiously to one side and take a position behind some barricades, peaking around to check out the room. It’s a different set up from the one before but featuring many of the same things, and the center of this room, rather than being totally empty, has a few pillars to hide behind, offering some cover. 

He spots Clay slinking towards a barricade on their left and nudges Jess to point. She looks, sees and then leans back to think for a moment before grabbing his vest and pulling him forward to deliver a soul searing kiss.

“Cover me, and there will be more of that.”

Good enough for him! He leans over the wall and fires a few times and true to form, Clay, cautious as ever, ducks back behind his cover. He can’t see Hannah wherever she is and he can only barely make out Jess slinking towards Clay’s ‘position’ while he keeps his brother from popping his head up and seeing.

Jess ends up going past Clay though, and he’s not sure why until he sees her pop up behind him and fire right at him. He lets out a yelp and fires back and runs for different cover but right into Justin who gets him again. His brother looks a little mystified that he’s already out and a very dry, “Great job Helmet” from somewhere in the dark caps it nicely.

As it turns out, Hannah is both smart, and creative and she ends up taking a point from both of them before going down in a hail fire, pinned between them. 

When the lights come on Hannah looks to Clay, sitting forlornly on the side and says, “I told you they wouldn’t make the same mistake again since you told them it was a mistake. Have some faith in Justin he’s smarter than you give him credit for never mind that Jess is his teammate.”

Clay blushes and replies testily, “Well if Justin is so smart why don’t you team up with him.”

He and Jess look back and forth as Hannah and Clay go at it. “No offense,” she mumbles to him, “but I don’t want Clay as my teammate.”

“No offense, but better you than me.”

She shoves his shoulder playfully. 

He grins and replies, “You owe me part two of that kiss.”

She gives a slight smirk of her own. “Maybe I don’t want to now.”

He smirks, it’s not a good idea but it might be fun. “If that’s the case~” He whispers to her in a sing song. “I’ll take Hannah as my partner.” 

Jess’s eyes go wide and she looks at him with a combination of mock horror, and a tiny bit of real horror.

Hannah meanwhile smirks and Clay sputters, still annoyed.

They split up according to the new teams and head to the next room. On the way he can’t help but ask, “Is Clay giving you a problem?”

She laughs, “Besides being pig headed and ridiculously stubborn not really. Honestly I was just hoping for a switch up anyway, I think this is going to be way more interesting than listening to him talk about strategy anyway.”

He laughs, “I’ll do my best to make it so.”

The conversation ends there cause they enter the next room and begin the match but he’s pretty excited to be playing with Hannah and she doesn’t disappoint because he turns to say something to her and she’s gone. He shrugs, and makes his way through the darkness looking around for any sign of Clay or Jess.

He finds them, unfortunately by walking into Clay as he rounds a corner. Clay yelps, Jess shoots him and he shoots and runs as fast as he can, Jess chasing after him. Fortunately he finds Hannah, or rather she finds them. At least he assumes because he sees a bunch of lasers cut through the dark at Jess and that convinces her to back off. He has no idea where Hannah is but Clay is out and Jess is down to one hit left while Hannah still has all of hers. He decides not to try to find his partner and spoil her lurking fun but looks around for Jess to try to finish the game.

It takes about ten minutes of walking around the whole arena, well creeping around but he finally ends up finding her and getting into a fire fight. It’s fun but it looks like a cheesy Nerf commercial with them diving over barricades and low walls while shooting at each other. He’s laughing too hard to aim properly and Jess seems to be too.

Unsurprisingly, Hannah is the only one capable of ending it which she does and when the lights flood the room, she reveals her hiding spot. Somehow she’s crawled on top of one of the high foam walls and now has a view of the whole thing from up there. He laughs but the loudspeakers he didn’t know existed comes on and crackles out, “Young lady, we’d prefer it if you didn’t climb on the obstacles.”

They’re all laughing, even Clay who he thought would be annoyed that he got out so fast but apparently not. He notices a look pass between Jess and Hannah though and he has a feeling he knows what’s coming even before Jess opens her mouth.

“I think we should do boys versus girls.”

“I concur.”

Clay sputters and he just shrugs. “I third the idea.”

And so they end up changing up the teams again.

He and Clay follow one hallway and the girls the other. When they enter he sticks behind Clay until his brother starts making a bunch of weird hand signals. He waits and then Clay turns around, seems surprised to see him still there and glares at him.

“What?”

“Why aren’t you circling around like I told you to?”

“You told me to circle around?”

He gets an exasperated sigh. “What did you think all of the hand motions were for?” 

He’s saved from answering by them being shot at and Clay pulling him behind a wall. “I’ll cover you, see if you can get around behind them.”

He goes back and then towards one of the sides, making his way around the edges. He ends up finding Hannah and they’re busy firing at each other when an unearthly shriek pierces the room. Both turn, worried something bad has happened but find Jess charging Clay screaming like a maniac while Clay flinches and appears shocked.

A silent agreement passes between them to give up their own fight and watch as Jess chases Clay around the wall before finally shooting him. Apparently she already hit him because he’s out after that but it does look like he got a hit on her which is helpful. He and Hannah split up and go opposite ways. 

He ends up losing but considering he gets Jess out before he does he’ll call it even. 

“We lost.” Clay sounds surprised when they all join up. The girls fist bump looking very pleased with themselves and he can’t help but ask “What was the screaming about?”

Jess laughs and Clay adopts a sour look. “She just started running at me screaming.”

“I couldn’t seem to hit him so I decided to just scare him. It worked pretty well.”

He and Hannah dissolve into laughter because it’s exactly the kind of strategy that would totally work against Clay.

“Listen, you have someone come running towards you screaming like a banshee and keep you cool.” 

They keep laughing as they exit the doors and return equipment. 

At lunch they sit around talking about the thing as if they weren’t all there. It was fun, he hopes they can do it again sometimes. He was able to take Jess out on a fun date, pay for part of it with his own money, spent time with his brother and Hannah, and enjoy his time with Jess, all in the span of a few hours.

They end up splitting up after lunch, Clay and Hannah off to do something and he and Jess spend the afternoon lazily hanging around the city. He drops her off in the evening and as he walks her to the porch she turns around and announces, “I forgot something.”

He frowns trying to figure out what it could be and is already running through the list outloud. She grabs the front of his shirt and pulls him in for a kiss that leaves him breathless and on cloud nine.

She smirks, “I owed you the other half.” 

The stupid grin remains on his face for the rest of the night. This summer has truly been the most perfect he’s ever had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter and sorry for the delay, I decided to take last week off after how hard the beach chapter was but I'm back this week with with a chapter featuring Jess and Hannah!
> 
> I'm not sure what next weeks chapter will be which bodes poorly for it coming out on time. I want to keep this to 5 chapters so I can do either a chapter already written with Monty (which will be one of the remaining 2 since it's already written) or I can do one about either Zach and Justin, or the Jensens with Justin, or I can post the Monty chapter as the last one and end this fic in order to move on with the final story arc I have planned. If you have an opinion, or an idea, let me know in the comments!
> 
> Happy reading and a special thanks to De_la_Cruz87 for beta reading this all in one night!


	4. Starry Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, the simplest things in life are the most satisfying, like spending a night with your best friend without a care in the world.

He meets Zach in the field empty handed. It’s sort of strange to be there without alcoholic beverages but honestly he doesn’t want it and Lainie would catch him anyway, even though he isn’t planning on going home tonight so it should be safe. He’s drunk at parties Bryce has thrown when he’s stayed over, those are the only times it’s worth the risk and he finds he doesn’t need it as much anyway. Lying to her feels wrong but it isn’t technically a lie. He told her he was spending the night with Zach and that’s true, just not at Zach’s place, part of him thinks she knew a little but she let him go anyway.

And so he and Zach are here, stretched out on the ground, heads next to each other, bodies pointed in opposite directions, looking up at the sky. He can’t help a grin imagining what Clay would say if he saw them in the dirt. He’d probably have a fit. They don’t talk right away, part of them unwilling to acknowledge the reason they’re here and the other part simply content to be together in a way that has never required words. It’s the strangest part about being with Zach that he doesn’t feel with another living person, he doesn’t always feel compelled to fill silence because Zach never makes him feel like he needs to. Sometimes he wants to which Zach is also fine with, but he never feels like he has to. 

In the end though there is a point to coming out here and he reluctantly brings it up, just to get it out of the way rather than leave it hanging over them.

“Two weeks.”

Zach heaves a sigh and agrees. “Two weeks.”

“Where did all the time go?”

“I don’t know, two months always seems so much longer than it is.”

“I wish I could do it over again. I wouldn’t change anything, I just want to relive it all.”

“I would change things.”

Justin turns his head to look at Zach. He gets a goofy grin. “I’d stop at 3 chilidogs, wear a wetsuit anywhere near you and May, and probably try to spend more time with my best friend.” Justin feels a nudge in his side and feels a smile creep over his face. 

“Only probably?”

Zach laughs next to him, a sound that rarely fails to bring a smile to his own face. “Hey, I’m not the one who was busy all the time, I was around all day everyday you made it hard.”

He gives Zach a playful shove, “Around all day my ass, you were gone for a whole week!”

“Yea, but that was expected. Between Jess, your folks, and other unexplained disappearances, we didn’t play nearly as much basketball as we did last summer.”

His folks. The words are said so casually, like Zach would, not make a big deal unless he had a reason to believe Justin wanted to, even though they both know the words mean more than anything to him. 

He suddenly points up at the sky at a pair of bright stars. “Lainie and Matt.”

Zach follows his hand and says, “Does that make the dimmer one next to them Clay?”

“We already had a Clay.” He pauses for a moment and then says, “What do you want to bet Clay knows the real names of some of these stars?”

“You could get him out here so we can find out.”

He laughs, “Are you kidding? Clay would freak out! He’d probably tell Matt too, who’d tell Lainie, who’d get this place deemed a deathtrap and have it bulldozed or something.”

Zach snickers next to him. “C’mon, he can’t really be that germaphobic.”

“We had a picnic in the park, a real ass picnic, and they brought an actual blanket for us to sit on. The only problem was that Clay refused to move off it cause he didn’t want to get dirt on his pants.”

“No way.”

“I wish I was kidding.”

“You must give him a heart attack anytime you do anything. Also you guys went camping, how did he handle that?”

He shrugs, “I dunno. Maybe Tony threatened to hold him down and make him eat dirt if he didn’t go, or maybe swimming in the lake made him feel clean enough.”

“Or maybe he wasn’t looking to impress Hannah later that day.”

He laughs, “That’s probably it, she seems like the kind of girl to nitpick about that, if only to annoy him.”

The conversation changes from there. They cover a thousand different things, basketball and their friends, siblings and families, Jess and the upcoming school year that’s totally still a long time away but just thinking about it can’t hurt too bad. He’s even done with summer homework thanks to Clay being a nag. Mostly. Further than he’s ever been before at this point in the summer at least. If that’s only half way who’s telling? Anyway, he’ll finish the rest when he watches the football team practice like he did last year, no use wasting good time on it.

They stay out all night, they planned to anyway. The mosquitos suck but other than that it’s perfect. A light breeze keeps the heat down, the crickets sing for all they’re worth, and above them the stars spread out over the sky like twinkling night lights. They doze intermittently, sometimes both awake talking other times only one of them does all the talking while the other half listens or naps. It’s easy, nothing’s a secret between them and at the same time, there aren’t so many broken things he feels he needs Zach to help him fix or glue back together. He thinks peace is the right word for the night.

Sunrise is stunning, the way the light slowly breaks, the sky going from black to dark blue, then breaking into pale pinks and oranges in the east that slowly bleed west until the whole sky is a striking blue that promises a perfect day. They don’t talk through that, just watch it silently but with the same shared sense of awe, neither willing to break the moment as it moves on.

They stay a little longer after, each lost in thought until Zach stands up and offers a hand saying, “We should be getting home, our folks will be worried if we don’t check in.”

He grabs it and Zach heaves him up. A happy feeling settles around him, warm and content. His folks. His folks, all his. Zach claps him on the back and they set off, back to civilization and people. 

His folks. Summer may be over soon, but that’s okay, he’s still living the dream either way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And welcome to another chapter, only one more to go. Sorry for this being late and also short, I seem to be having a spell of writers block on this story but the next chapter just needs to be changed a bit so I should be able to get it out on time even with this. For those of you who aren't aware of the context for this story, several chapters for another fic I have are set here. It's an unused middle school that Justin and Zach get drunk at several times. They also have a game where they point at stars and name them after the people they know. Other than that there isn't much to this chapter, just friends being friends.
> 
> Next one will feature Monty and as I said before needs to be edited a bit to re purpose it for fitting in here but the important parts are there so I should be able to fix it up and get it ready for posting. It will be darker than the other chapters in this story so be warned!
> 
> Happy reading, let me know what you think in the comments and for Star Wars fans out there, May the 4th be with you!


	5. Summer's End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Justin and Monty have seen a lot of each other this summer and if he’s honest, Justin’s enjoyed it. He’s learned a lot about Monty but somehow everything comes crashing down, at least Tony’s around to help bolster his confidence in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: CONTAINS TALK OF SUICIDE

Monty sneers at him and it hurts. It’s sort of childish but after the past two months and all the time they’ve spent together, to see the other boy make that face now is painful in a way it never could have before baseball in the park. They’re at Rosy’s, his treat and damn does it feel good to be able to treat someone, but the food is long gone. They’re sitting outside where they won’t be bothered and maybe if his survival instincts were better they’d be inside in case Monty decides to try murdering him which might be where the conversation is headed.

“Just because you found some bleeding hearts to take you doesn’t mean it’ll happen for me.”

He frowns but decides not to argue that Lainie is absolutely not a bleeding heart and might be able to beat both of them up at the same time. He might, except she and Matt keep telling him to pick his battles and this is one he can skip.

“You don’t know that.” His voice is quiet, he hates it. He sounds weak and he knows Monty won’t respond to something like this and yet he can’t help it. The older boy is going to go home and there’s a fifty fifty chance as to whether he’ll come to school tomorrow for the start of the school year, not because his odds of not getting smacked around are that good but because any beat down he might get could be enough to keep him from going to school.

Predictably the other boy gets angrier. “I’m not like you.” The words come out as a hiss, angry and violent and full of loathing but whether self or directed at him, Justin can’t tell. Probably at both of them and everyone else in the world, Monty’s capacity for hate is impressive and he’s kind of proud of himself for not flinching. “People fucking like you with your pretty smile, and nice eyes and all your fucking good looks and charm. I’m not like that, there’s no one in the world who gives a fuck about me but they’d fall over themselves to wipe your ass.” 

“Scott does, so do me and Bryce.”

It’s not a smart thing to say because Monty is already clenching and unclenching his fists and looks ready to blow. “Fuck you’re stupid. Scott might, fine, but he can’t do shit about this. You’re dead fucking wrong about Bryce. He doesn’t love anyone but himself and probably never has. But he’s rich and likes to polish trash so I’ll take it. You shouldn’t because I’ve hated you since the moment we met.”

He tries not to let it hurt, the obvious lie cause if Monty really hated him, why did the other boy spend so much time with him during the summer? Instead he tries again, “Does it hurt to try? If you’re right you don’t lose anything but if you’re wrong-”

Monty gets up and flips the ketchup coated tray into Justin’s lap. “Shut the fuck up Foley before I fucking kill you. You don’t know anything, you think we’re the same but we aren’t. We’re both white trash but you're trash that has a future, you always did even before all this shit. You could have made it out of this shit hole, found a college willing to take you, talked your way onto their basketball team, played professional. Even without that, people like you and you’re good at getting them to keep liking you. And I fucking hate you for it. For as hard as life’s ever been for you, I’ve always had it ten times worse because unlike you when I get laid into I don’t have three or four options to escape to, one of which is a door's always open offer to a rich kid’s house. You’re soft and weak, no one’s ever beaten you so bad you didn’t know if you were going to live because you always had someone to foot a hospital bill if you needed it. I don’t have that. People don’t like me and I don’t like them.”

Justin thinks he can feel the anger from the other boy and he’s sort of stunned into silence as Monty, apparently done with the conversation, turns on his heel and storms off.

“I thought I would die before I was thirty.” He doesn’t think before he speaks, just starts and then continues before he can lose his nerve. “I hoped I would. I didn’t want to be like them I-I wanted to die before I hurt someone like I was hurt. I figured if I did somehow make it-I’d find a way to go out that-that I could live with, or die with. I didn’t want to OD on something and prove everyone right but I wasn’t sure I could use a gun or knife. I thought maybe I’d go down by the water and just swim until I couldn't anymore.”

Monty’s stopped walking but hasn’t turned around. He’ll take it.

“I think you’re the same. You try so hard to convince everyone you’re mean and that you hate everyone and everything and that you aren’t afraid of anything and maybe that’s all true but it isn’t the whole truth. I think you’d rather die before you become like your old man and that’s enough to tell me you won’t be. I don’t want to die young, and I don’t want you to either. I want you to get out of here, to see what life is like when you’re not worried about going home, or where your next meal comes from, or keeping up an image. I wanted to be your friend from the beginning and I know you hated me and for a while I hated you too but I don’t anymore so please let me try to help.”

Nothing for a few seconds but he needs to catch his breath. It feels like he’s poured everything he is into saying all of that and honestly he feels drained after doing so.

“Fuck you Foley, say shit like that again and I’ll send you home to mommy and daddy in a body bag.” His voice sounds odd and Justin wonders if he’s imagining the way Monty’s voice catches or if it’s just him but the threat sounds more desperate than it should.

In any case, Monty doesn’t turn around to look at Justin but walks away. It stings, he sort of falls onto the bench, not caring that he now has ketchup all over his butt because it’s all across the front of him anyway. He feels...a lot of things, exhausted, let down, disappointed, maybe even angry. He thought-in the movies this sort of thing always works, pouring your heart and soul into something and no matter how long the shot is, everything will work out. He meant it all too, every last stupid word of it. All summer he’s spent every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon with Monty and usually another random day of the week. During that time, it’s confirmed what he’s suspected about Monty since that first day at Bryce’s party three years ago. Monty isn’t as cold as he wants to pretend he is, under the facade he puts up is a normal person, someone with dreams and wants, he can be funny is a sarcastic sort of way. Conversation between them is still awkward sometimes, but not always. In fact, they’re closer than they’ve ever been and it’s not hard considering how far apart they started but he was so sure they were making some kind of progress, and maybe they were, maybe he just jumped the gun and tried to push too early.

He realizes he’s crying and he isn’t totally sure why. He’d like to say it’s anger at himself for being dumb enough to think Monty could be anymore than the monster he’s seemed for years but that’s a lie and he knows it. Despite what just happened, he can’t bring himself to believe Monty is anything like his dad, he’s sure that he’s right and that means the tears are frustration which seems so much worse. 

No matter what Monty says or does, he’ll always remember the boy from the party, bruised but not broken with the wild eyes and burning temper so hot, Justin thought he might catch on fire. Monty had hated him from the moment they met, the first words he ever said to Justin were an angry, cursed laced tirade about Justin being gay for looking at him so much. When Justin had tried to explain himself, tried to tell Monty they were the same and should be friends, it had taken Jeff, Scott, and Willem to pull Monty off of him. 

He’s spaced out when he realizes someone’s in front of him. 

“You look like Jess just broke up with you or Clay told you to never come home again.”

Tony. He looks up and the older boy offers a napkin, he realizes he’s been crying and wipes the tears away angrily, or as angrily as he can. He’s happy Tony doesn't comment on the abundant ketchup stains, less happy when he pushes, gentle as it is.

“Want to talk about it?”

He shakes his head cause he absolutely doesn’t want to, he wants to sit and not think about anything until he has to go home and then invent something to tell Matt and Lainie to explain why he looks like he lost a fight with a ketchup bottle.

Tony of course takes a seat across from him and Justin almost groans, not in the mood for company and ready for the older boy to start a game of twenty questions but he should have known better. They sit in silence and it isn’t even awkward, well not too much until he finally ends up saying, “I just-I’ve been trying to help someone but no matter what I do it isn’t working.”

“And now you’re feeling discouraged?”

All he can manage is a miserable nod.

“I get from the way you're taking this it isn’t just a simple favor or something easy, you’re trying to do something big aren’t you?”

Another nod, and even that’s exhausting. The last of the adrenaline is wearing off and now he just feels empty, hollow maybe.

“Does it have something to do with Monty?”

His head snaps up, eyes wide, and mouth opens to say something but no words come out.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. I don’t know what you want from him exactly but I think I have a pretty good guess. I’m not sure how smart it is but I don’t think there’s any way for me to talk you out of it and I don’t really want to.” Tony pauses for a second and offers a tight smile, his own jaw has hit the floor. “You need to do this, I can tell. If you don’t you won’t forgive yourself for not trying hard enough even if you have and you’ll always wonder if you could have changed something or done something different somehow.”

He blushes, he doesn’t want to say Tony is right, but if he isn’t then what reason does he have to feel this way?

“Remember Clay spent months trying to help you. Sure you didn’t fight him like Monty’s fighting you now but you didn’t exactly help him either.”

“So you’re telling me to wait?”

Tony doesn’t reply right away, instead he adopts a thoughtful look and seems to consider what he’s about to say before finally replying. “No, I’m telling you to be safe, call me if you need me, and keep trying. I can’t figure out why you would want to help Monty, that boy is trouble, but I know that look on your face and no matter what I say you’re going to see this through to whatever end comes of it so I might as well offer whatever help I can. Now, want a ride home?” Tony dangles his keys and he follows the older boy to his car.

The ride is silent for the first part until Justin finally says, “He could be me.”

Tony hums.

“I’m serious. His dad’s no worse than my mom’s boyfriends. If I-I could have been him. Angry and mean and alone.”

Another hum.

“It wouldn’t have taken much. I mean some days I already was and I bullied Clay and a lot of other people already, all I’m missing is the short fuse.”

Silence this time and then, “You could have but you aren’t.”

“You’re right, I’m not but that’s cause I had people, Bryce and then later Zach and the guys, now I have the Jensens and you and Jess too. Monty doesn’t have anyone but-but maybe it isn’t too late. I thought if I could-I don’t know I guess it sounds stupid but I thought if I could be the person for him that all of you are for me maybe I could help him.”

“And do you still think that?”

He hesitates for a moment but then says, “Yes.”

Tony nods and he gets the feeling he answered something right. “Then keep trying, if Monty is like what you think then he’ll come around, just don’t give up.”

They pull up in front of the Jensens’ and Justin gets out pausing for a moment and saying quietly, “Thanks Tony.”

The older boy gives him a small smile and replies, “Anytime Justin.” 

He heads in feeling his resolve return. He can do this, he won’t be another person who fails Monty because helping him is hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And welcome to the last chapter of this part! I hope you all enjoy despite the heaviness of the message. I've had this written for a long time but had it originally set at a different point and repurposed it for now. Monty isn't done in this story, I still have a plan for him to play later on but he will be moving to more of a side character for a while which I'm sure will make some of you very happy. 
> 
> Speaking of plans, I have the next part started but I want to finish it, or get much farther in it than I am now because it's going to be big and heavy and very angsty. For this reason, I think I'm going to take 2 weeks off and try to finish as much of it as I can so there won't be anything from me next week. The next thing that I will post will be a 1 chapter part that's already written and going to be posted with a lot of trigger warns attached and set up the chapters that follow in another part which I plan to close out this AU.
> 
> Happy reading everyone and let me know what you think in the comments. Also a big thanks to de_la_Cruz87 for her help beta reading this and you should check her out cause she has an awesome story of her own going.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to a new fic. This one's probably only going to be a few chapters, my goal is 5 or less to fill in the gape that summer leaves in the story.


End file.
